Air {Elements of Power 3}

Chapter 38: Roxy

The palace was eerily silent and the glass walls were dark and gloomy-ominous. Where was everyone? Even without my grandfather, the castle should have been full of staff, visiting diplomats and guards. But there were no lights on inside and the windowed walls stood dark and impenetrable. There was no sound of the palace's usual army of inhabitants. I had never seen it as empty as this before; it sent shivers up my spine. The words of the guard kept running through my head "He's not a Prince anymore. Cinaer deposed him." Everything I had seen and heard since arriving home seemed to confirm Cinaer's confession in the library. Cinaer had taken over my family home and had stolen the life of the place along with it.

A buzzing sound cut through the air, and I glanced across at Jasmine to see her palms alight with electricity. "Sorry," she said and the light receded. "I'm a little nervous."

I smiled. "That's fine. But there's nothing to be nervous about; we've got this."

"Do you think we could get away with just walking through the front door?" She sounded hopeful.

"Unfortunately not. If I know Cin, he'll have something in place. We should have asked the guard at the gate though," I cursed, realising that we were now too far away to double back.

"So what's the plan?" she whispered; we were nearing the building now.

"There's a side entrance that the staff use-the guards would have to go in and out of it too, so it should be safe enough." We still needed to be cautious, but there had to be some viable way in and out of the palace.

She nodded. "Lead on then."

Walking quickly but quietly, we slipped around the side of the building. I was painfully aware that with the lights off inside, we were all too visible to anyone who might have been in the rooms, possibly ruining any chance we might have of taking the occupants by surprise. They could be assembling guards to take us out the moment we entered, but there wasn't anything we could do about that right now: we had to go in-my family needed us, as did Brae and the Arcans. It was more than worth the risk.

A nervous flicker of flame burst in my own hands, despite my assertions to Jasmine that she didn't need to worry. Having my powers back still came with a burning sense of relief; they were a precious part of myself that I would never let Cinaer take away from me again.

When we reached the staff door I paused for a moment, taking a deep breath, before pushing tentatively on the handle. I was waiting for the floor to fall out from underneath us, or a raging wall of fire to spring up before our eyes. But nothing happened. I nudged the door open with my foot, but still didn't step inside. Instead, I sparked flames in my fingertips, using the light to peer into the gloom.

We were faced with an empty room. It was lined with benches with some of the guards' gear on them: shoes, coats, bags-nothing out of the ordinary. No nets, poised to fall down on our heads. No flamethrowers hidden in the wall.

The way was clear, so I stepped forwards.

And plummeted down into darkness.

{Double posting today as I didn't get a chance last week and this one is really short. What do you think has happened to Roxy? Please comment with your thoughts and vote if you enjoyed.}